Successful Art Business, Planning and Marketing Tools and Techniques You Can Use

Creatives and Business is about helping artists and other creative professionals become more successful in the world of business.  I will provide you with tools and techniques to help make your creative enterprise more successful and sustainable.  I will also let you know about new ideas and resources in the creative business sector so you can learn about what other successful creatives are doing.

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__Your elevator speech is not just for elevators!

You need an effective introduction when you meet people. Call it an elevator speech or 60 second commercial. I prefer to call it a story that describes your “secret sauce”

Developing and delivering your elevator speech is hard work and it takes a lot of practice. Almost all people in business struggle with getting that perfect few sentences that roll off of your tongue with ease and conviction – artists and creatives are no exception.

One of the things I do with my Artrepreneurship students at the Center For Innovation is to have them give their elevator speech at the start of every class beginning with the first class session. After the second or third class they know that they will have to give their “pitch” and start to take it seriously – you should take is seriously as well!

When you develop your elevator speech keep in mind two basic adages of advertising:

1. You can’t bore people into buying from you (and listening as well)

2) You can’t put ten pounds of stuff into a five pound bag (keep it short, concise and interesting)

Here are some tips on developing your elevator speech / story: Read more

In these challenging economic times it is more important than ever to provide world class service.  The old adage that keeping a customer is a lot cheaper than getting a new one rings even truer today.  In a world of endless phone menus and computer voice recognition programs it seems that some organizations take their customers for granted.

The organizations that don’t take their customers for granted are positioned to capture market share once the economy turns around.  Arts and creative enterprises are no different.  Whether you are a one person studio of have employees you need to take care that your customer service image is world class.

When developing brand images in my photography business, Neil McKenzie Photography for the customer service function or department I always ask my clients to tell me about their customer service efforts.  The questions I ask go something like this: Read more

You have seen them – pictures of people on their websites, social networking sites, brochures and business cards. When you meet them in person there is a disconnect, the image they use to support their brand does not match the reality.

Here are some examples:

- The images show someone with a full of head of hair – the reality is someone who doesn’t have a full head of hair.

- The images show someone who is sleek and slender – the reality is someone who has gained weight.

- The images show a young vibrant person participating in sports or other activities – the reality is someone who has aged 20 years.

- The images show a glamorous young woman – the reality is a mature woman who is probably still beautiful.

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As a photographer specializing in business and personal brands am I finding that more and more of my images are appearing on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin as well as small niche sites built using programs such as Ning. These sites are a great way to build your brand and expand your network for either business or personal purposes – if done right!

When I work on a personal brand I like to get to know my clients. It helps me paint a better story and really hone in on what their brand is all about – kind of like the marketing audits I used to do with companies only now for people. Here are some things you need to think about before you embark on your social media efforts. If you have already started you may want to think about areas you need to improve on or fine tune. Read more

There is an old saying – nothing make you crazy faster than hanging out with crazy people.  The same could be said for being successful – nothing makes you more successful faster than hanging around with other successful people.  One common thread with successful people is that they say that they had the help of the people they surrounded themselves with – few say they did it alone.  Make it a point to associate with interesting and successful people.

Here are a few ideas on the types of people you should get to know: Read more

Recently while participating on Twitter I ran across a reference to a blog post by Seth Godin about how your profile picture on sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn affect your brand. I have been writing articles on Your Brand Image on just this very subject and I thought I would check out what the author of the best selling book “Tribes” had to say on the subject. If you have read my previous articles you would have seen that I recommend having a great profile picture that supports your brand, a picture that is authentic and honest.

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I recently watched a very interesting program on PBS Frontline entitled Digital Nation that has some major implications for your business or personal brand. We are spending more time on our computers, notebooks, netbooks, PDAs, Smart phones iPhones, and soon the iPad – increasingly we are using more than one of these devices at the same time. Read more